AFRICA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

33
Young women do not have access to military or national service training. Military
service is voluntary for men only, and available to very few young women who serve
as clerical workers. The Government abolished its national service program in April,
a program that previously allowed male and female high school graduates to serve
in government departments, mostly in rural areas. Government officials recently announced
that there are no plans to recruit women into the Botswana Defense Force,
due to infrastructure concerns such as lack of adequate living quarters and training
facilities that made integration impracticable; the statement prompted women’s
rights activists to claim a denial of equal opportunity.
The Government and interested NGO’s meet regularly to implement the long-term
plan of action described in the National Policy on Women adopted in 1996. The plan
identifies six critical areas of concern, prioritized as follows:(1) women and poverty,
(2) women and powersharing and decisionmaking, (3) education and training of
women, (4) women and health, (5) the girl child, and (6) violence against women.
The Women’s Affairs Department of the Ministry of Labor and Home Affairs, in conjunction
with the United Nations Development Program, developed the Program
Support Document (PSD) in 1997, which provides a framework for implementation
of the national policy on women through 2002. Its five target areas include: (1) institutional
strengthening at the national level, (2) advocacy and social mobilization, (3)
institutional strengthening of NGO’s, (4) research and information sharing, and (5)
economic empowerment.
A number of women’s organizations have emerged to promote the status of
women. The Government has entered into a dialog with many of these groups.
While some women’s rights groups reportedly felt that the Government has been
slow to respond concretely to their concerns, women’s NGO’s state that they are encouraged
by the direction of change and by the increasingly collaborative relationship
with government authorities. Major women’s NGO’s include the Emang Basadi
Women’s Association, which promotes the social, economic and legal status of
women; the Metlhaetsile Women’s Information Centre, which provides legal assistance
to poor women; and the Botswana Council of Women.
Children.—The Government provides 7 years of free primary education for children,
although attendance is not compulsory. Government estimates of the proportion
of children who never attend school have ranged from 10 to 17 percent, and
fewer than 20 percent of children complete secondary school; school attendance and
completion rates are highest in urban areas, and lowest in remote rural areas, especially
those inhabited chiefly by Basarwa (San or Bushmen). The national literacy
rate is 69 percent: 70 percent for females and 67 percent for males. However, in
some cases, girls are denied schooling because of religious or customary beliefs. The
Government continued to allocate the largest portion of its operating expenditures
to the Ministry of Education, and the second-largest portion to the Ministry of Local
Government, Lands, and Housing, which administered primary education. It also
continued to allocate a large part of its investment expenditures to construct primary
and secondary schools, so that children have ready access to education.
It was estimated during the year that 35.8 percent of adults are infected with
HIV/AIDS, and due largely to deaths from HIV/AIDS, 60,000 orphans were registered
by the Ministry of Health countrywide. Increasing numbers of children,
mostly believed to be orphans, were observed begging or engaging in prostitution
in urban areas. Orphans infected with HIV/AIDS also were denied inheritance
rights by their relatives.
The rights of children are addressed in the Constitution and the 1981 Children’s
Act. Under the act, The country has a court system and social service apparatus
designed solely for juveniles. The Government launched a 10-year program of action
for children in 1997, incorporating the seven major global goals identified at the
1990 U.N. World Summit for Children. In 1996 the Ministry of Labor and Home
Affairs transferred responsibility for children to the Social Welfare Department in
the Ministry of Local Government, Lands, and Housing. Laws pertaining to children
continued to be under review to align them with the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child. The Adoption Act also continued to be reviewed to ensure that adopted
children are provided for and not exploited as cheap labor.
There is no societal pattern of abuse against children, although incest and other
forms of child abuse have received increased attention from the media and from
local human rights groups.
The problem of sexual harassment of students by teachers is a national concern.
Reports of rape and sexual assault of young women, and cases of incest and ‘‘defilement’’
of young girls appear with greater frequency in the news. The age of sexual
consent is 16. Child prostitution and pornography are criminal offenses, and 1998
amendments increased penalties for ‘‘defilement’’ of persons under 16.
VerDate 11-MAY-2000 16:09 Sep 19, 2001 Jkt 073776 PO 00000 Frm 00033 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.002 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1